The serious information drought for Final Fantasy XIII must be killing fans, but the silence has been broken with a few nuggets of info, following from the first proper in-game shots last week.
According to translations of a recent Famitsu write-up, the leading female character in the game is called Dia Walruva. No other details were given for her, though.
More importantly, Famitsu reports that the battle system have been streamlined to that the transition from explorative gameplay to a battle is seamless and unnoticeable.
You see enemies wandering around, and you enter battle with them as you approach, taking on the same number of enemies you saw in explorative gameplay, according to translations.
No word on a release though, the game still down for a vague 2009 in Japan, which means we probably won't see an English version for donkeys.
hmm..not out in japan untill a 'vague' 2009 which means end of 2009. By my calcualtions going by previous Final Fantasy games this means we will see the game around about 2030.
The US version is usually out 6-9 months before the european version, can this be used on a european PS3 seeing as we no longer have the PAL/NTSC problems, i.e. is it region locked?
really hope they do a NSTC version before pal... pal takes every game ...throws it into a pit...it then gets abused by a randy pig..and sold to the public.. wh00t thankgod for region free ps3's.
Considering that men are the majority in gaming, how many actually like controlling female characters? If Cloud had been a girl would FFIV be as popular?
Would Mirrors edge have faired better with a male lead?
I for one don't like controlling a female character, but prefer them to be in the story as strong characters.
If I wanted to control women I'd start a cult. Pack it in.
i enjoy controlling female characters as much as male. It doesn't make any difference to me.
If you think about it there have been a lot of very popular games in which you control female characters.
Tomb raider and Metroid in particular.
considering how poular LAra croft was when the series started i think you are in a minority mate. As the guy who came up with Ms LAra said ' I'd rather look at a woman's bottom for three hours than a mans!'
It would of been interesting to be able to control cloud in Final fantasy IV considering he didn't appear until VII, also you control multiple characters in all the final fantasy games so its a bit of a mutr point.
I wouldn't really count samus as a female character that you have to look at the whole game seeing as how... you know... shes in a big hulky robotic suit the whole time. Gimme a game like tomb raider or heavenly sword where you look at the chicks ass the whole game and then you can compare them to games with male leads. I for one don't think women WOULD do half the **** males do in video games (imagine a female cutting aliens in half in gears, it just wouldn't work).
Have to agree with WHERESMYMONKEY about the combat system, I hated 12 only for the fact that I basically walk around and buy stuff...then let the AI do everything that looks like fun. I really enjoyed FFX and even though I didn't fully understand the character progression I still had a lot of fun in the battles and the game does give you Auron to give you a fighting chance no matter how bad mess up. "Holy behemoth were all about to die! Um mix a potion, throw a soccer ball, and take a swig of whiskey!" Now that's an innovative and fun way to find out what works in battle while keeping me hooked.
a lot of people complained about 12's battle system being too hands off but that could be tweaked in the gambits. i have full control over all 3 characters in battle(make sure the ai scripts are mostly off),i then add a gambit or two like auto haste,regen,potion and phoenix down.
earlier FF's had the same auto abilities,there's not that much difference really.
oh and as for FFX wingforward: that game had one of the hardest enemies i've ever come across in an FF,penance. you had to kill all the dark aeons and the f*cker would turn up at the calm lands.
it took a 205 hour slog on the japanese international version,with a full expert sphere grid for every character to get near killing it.
ste hicky, I wasn't meaning to say that FFX didn't have its share of hard battles, I was just pointing out that it was possible to still have fun with the game even if your not good at it. In fact I was terrible at it. I literally only survived because my guys were constantly doing their special moves (that just so happen to involve drinking alcohol, mixing chemicals with random junk, and throwing sports equipment in people's faces). Distributing my points for development was weird to me and I likely put them in the worst possible place. I had to bench Tidus because I couldn't figure out how to get him to deal decent damage, got him a new sword hoping that would help but nope. Every battle was a struggle and it was amazing how I got through them. I tried manually controlling my people in 12 but I didn't find anything entertaining about them. All anyone had was basic weapon attacks and basic spells. The creativity that I loved in the previous game was gone and replaced with serious story and combat. I'm sure I can't be the only one who feels this way and that's why I hope that the next FF game will bring back those "special" characters and fun moments that made FFX so memorable for me.
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